{"id":348600,"date":"2025-12-15T01:44:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T01:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348600\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T01:44:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T01:44:08","slug":"pogacar-is-often-very-lucky-but-not-always","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348600\/","title":{"rendered":"Pogacar is often very lucky, but not always"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tadej Pogacar<\/a> has been the best cyclist in the world for years, thanks to relentless work, outstanding equipment, perfect nutrition and, of course, raw talent. But there is also an element of luck involved. The Slovenian superstar rarely ends up on the ground, especially when compared to his biggest rivals. But why is that? A UAE Team Emirates mechanic explains.Bostjan Kavcnik has been a crucial mechanic for Pogacar since his youth. From the front row, he sees that misfortune rarely knocks on the world champion\u2019s door. \u201cI have to admit that Tadej is lucky, and so am I,\u201d he told Siol<\/a>. \u201cFor example, this year he didn\u2019t have a single mechanical issue all season that required a tyre change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, it is not just luck that explains why the rider suffers so little bad fortune. \u201cI\u2019d rather not say it out loud, but at the same time it\u2019s something we can be proud of,\u201d Kavcnik continued. \u201cIt reflects excellent tyres, top-quality materials, good equipment, and at the same time it shows the rider\u2019s technical skills and bike-handling feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the video!<\/p>\n

‘Urska spent days picking thorns out of his skin’As a professional cyclist, crashing at least once is inevitable. Even Pogacar, who is remarkably good at staying upright, experienced that this year. He went down in the Tour de France, but his crash at Strade Bianche<\/a>, in particular, captured the imagination. After a huge somersault into thorn bushes, he miraculously got back on his bike and still crossed the finish line in Siena with a commanding advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, it should be noted that, as strange as it sounds, he made a pretty good crash,\u201d Kavcnik explained. \u201cHe was also lucky: on that section of the road there was no kerb, no pavement, no drop-off. He literally slid across the ground and ended up in the thorns. I remember that Urska (Zigart, Pogacar’s girlfriend) spent days picking thorns out of his skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

Pogacar often escapes unscathed: \u2018How does it feel when you break something?\u2019<\/p>\n

Two years earlier, however, the story was very different. Pogacar was enjoying a brilliant spring and had won the Amstel Gold Race and La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne in April. But at Li\u00e8ge\u2013Bastogne\u2013Li\u00e8ge, things went badly wrong. A rider in front of the Slovenian suffered a blowout, causing a major crash. Pogacar broke his wrist and was forced to abandon, derailing his preparation for the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

His mechanic remembers the moment vividly. \u201cI still clearly remember him lying on the ground, gasping for breath, and you could see from his face how hard the impact was,\u201d Kavcnik said. \u201cHe tried to move his arm, Matxin was cleaning his jersey, and when he took off his helmet, I knew it was over. He went into the ambulance, I put his bike and helmet away, and then he came back and asked: \u2018Where is my bike?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar then got back on the bike briefly but, a kilometre later, had to admit the pain was too much. \u201cWhen he got into the team car, he looked at me and asked: \u2018Hey, how does it feel when you break something?\u2019\u201d Kavcnik recalled. \u201cI told him I didn\u2019t know. \u2018Does it hurt?\u2019 he asked, before adding: \u2018I think I\u2019ve broken something. It really hurts in my hand.\u2019 He said he had never broken anything before and didn\u2019t know what it felt like.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadej Pogacar has been the best cyclist in the world for years, thanks to relentless work, outstanding equipment,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85,6494,19805],"class_list":{"0":"post-348600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tadej-pogacar","13":"tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}